Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/875036
OUT OF CONTEXT IT IS STARTING TO DAWN ON THE DENVER creative community that Outdoor Retailer will arrive next winter and bring with it a biannual opportunity to connect with like minded businesses and professionals. There is a shared feeling among locals that Denver's turn as host will bring attention to the area's outdoor scene, much like the Salt Lake City gathering highlighted the outdoor businesses in that basin. The Mile High City is much bigger than SLC, with a larger population of product people surrounded by established resources, both in terms of designers, developers, and patternmakers as well as the industrial and manufacturing capacity required to support healthy, small batch factories and workshops. With Colorado as an ideal backdrop, D e nve r is u n i q u e l y s i tu ate d to ta ke advantage of OR from a made-in-USA point of view like Salt Lake never could. The Outdoor Retailer tribe is beginning to realize that they can't make all product overseas and continue to look the consumer in the eye for another generation. Their ongoing balancing act of touting sustainability while sourcing from countries that lack human, political, sexual or information rights, is wearing thin with the public's conscience. The time is coming when suppliers will have to make their goods closer to home. The problem is, making current product in this hemisphere is not just difficult, it is more or less impossible; there just isn't the expertise in the USA anywhere near the scale needed to supply even a tiny percentage of the outdoor market. One group in Denver is taking the first steps to bridge this divide by having a little get together. "Designers, Dogs and Makers" is an upcoming event this October where the local creative minds from the outdoor, bike and ski industries will meet with Front Range sewing factories. The affair will focus on sharing ideas about what is currently being manufactured, and what can and will be made in Colorado in the future. It is slated as an all Blue Sky evening, with conversation centered on the possibilities and direction of American-made sewn goods. The designers and product developers can learn about the capabilities, constructions, and specialties of the local manufacturers while the factories can hear in detail about what the product creators are looking for. Price takes a back seat to discussions of quality and the engineering of successful product. This meeting is movement in the right direction. If it works, perhaps Designers, Dogs and Makers morphs into a satellite of Outdoor Retailer as a way for American outdoor companies to connect with made in USA factories. The first step is for the designers to get to know the physical details of manufacturing in this country and for the factories to learn what expertise they'll need to chase. The end goal of an American made outdoor industry is admittedly way, way off in the distance, however, having the designers and factories get together could forge the beginnings of a shared vision, where the sustainability of the sewing is as important as the design and the materials used in the style. Disclaimer: Mr. Gray lives with cats, a fact all dogs know and usually forgive him for. His opinions are his own and are not necessarily shared by the publisher or the dog's owners. O Denver's Designers, Dogs and Makers by Kurt Gray textileinsight.com 58 • Textile Insight ~ September / October 2017